Could the outbreak have been stopped?

With some commentators raising the spectre of Walkerton, this could become a very big story indeed:

A leaked cabinet document that outlined plans for the Canadian Food Inspection Agency to give the food industry a greater role in the inspection process raised the ire of opposition politicians last week.

However, some of the plans have been in place since March 31, according to a CFIA manager and an official from the union that represents the federal inspectors.

At the Maple Leaf plant behind the listeria outbreak, a single federal inspector was relegated to auditing company paperwork and had to deal with several other plants, the manager and the union official said, contradicting the impression that officials had left last week that full-time watchdogs were on-site.

Under the new system, federal inspectors do random product tests only three or four times a year at any given plant. And meat packers are required to test each type of product only once a month.

Under the old system, inspectors had a more hands-on role on the plant floor, did more of the tests themselves and had more freedom to investigate, said former CFIA inspector Bob Kingston, who is national president of the Agriculture Union, a branch of the Public Service Alliance of Canada.

The government should only do a few things, but ensuring the safety of the food supply is one of them. Even with rigorous inspections, this might have slipped through - but we may never know. If this story has legs, that should put an end to all the election talk we've been hearing lately.

Damian P.

Update: more here:

The inspector stationed at the Toronto plant at the centre of a deadly food-borne outbreak is responsible for six other facilities under a new inspection system that has drawn complaints that staff "are working off their feet."

The claim comes as federal health officials have increased to 15 the number of deaths linked to the outbreak.

Complaints have flooded in from some inspectors in "resource stressed" areas such as Ontario and Alberta since March, when the Canadian Food Inspection Agency brought in a new compliance verification system (CVS), according to Bob Kingston, head of the agriculture unit of the Public Service Alliance of Canada, which represents food inspectors across Canada.

How long before heads start rolling?

Posted by damian at August 27, 2008 09:16 AM